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THE LATE 




CHARLES A. LEE, M. D. 



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OBITUAKY XOTICE. 



[REPRINTED FROM THE NEW TORE MEDICAL JOURNAL, APRIL, MS.] 

V 



Peof. Chaeles Alfeed Lee, A. M., M. D., who died at 
his residence in Peekskill, N. Y., February 14, 1872, aged 
seventy-one, derived his blood from the Lees and Browns 
of Massachusetts and Connecticut. His ancestors in both 
branches extend back and occupy distinguished positions in 
America for more than two centuries. In collateral descent 
his paternal ancestors are allied to Governor Bradford's de- 
scendants. The earliest lineal paternal ancestors of Dr. Lee 
in America, that can be traced with certainty, are : 

1. John Lee, who died in Massachusetts in 1690, and had 
lor wife Mary Hart, of Farmington. 

2. David Lee, of Coventry, son of the former, who mar- 
ried Lydia Strong, daughter of Jedediah Strong, and grand- 
daughter of Elder John Strong. 

3. Rev. Jonathan Lee, born July 4, 1718, who was a man 
of great force of character and influence, and the first Con- 



V 

gregational minister in Salisbury, and was twice married ; first, 
to Elizabeth Metcalf, great-great-granddaughter of Governor 
Bradford, September 3, 1744 ; second, to Love Brinkerhoff, 
1762 ; had eleven children, and died October 8, 1788. 

4. Samuel Lee, Esq., of Salisbury, who married Elizabeth 
Brown, of Pittsfield, daughter of Captain Jacob Brown, of 
Sandisfieid, an officer of the Revolutionary War, who accom- 
panied Arnold in his fruitless expedition through the wilder- 
ness, up the Kennebec, against Canada, in 1776, and died in 
Quebec March 14, 1776; and niece of the gallant Colonel 
John Brown, who was killed in battle while fighting for 
American liberty, October 19, 1780, aged thirty-six. 

Charles Alfred Lee, son of Samuel, was born at Salisbury, 
Conn., March 3, 1801. Much of his boyhood was passed 
in the family of his uncle, the late Elisha Lee, Esq., of Shef- 
field, Mass. Here he fitted for college, becoming a member 
of the Lenox Academy, at the age of sixteen. One year 
later he entered the sophomore class of Williams College, 
Mass. While at college he was noted for his great industry, 
systematic habits of study, strict performance of duties, and 
for irreproachable morals. On graduating at this institu- 
tion A.M. in 1822, he received the honorable distinction 
of being chosen by the faculty to deliver the philosophical 
oration at the public college commencement. His studies had 
been prosecuted with a view to entering the Congregational 
ministry, but the state of his health on leaving college caused 
his medical advisers to urge him to study medicine, a vocation 
better calculated to improve his constitution, which had been 
seriously impaired by long confinement and close study, and 
from neglect of exercise and inattention to the laws of health. 

Accordingly, he commenced the study of medicine with 
his brother-in-law, the late Luther Ticknor, M. D., of Salis- 
bury, Conn. He attended two courses of lectures at the 
Berkshire Medical College, at Pittsfield, Mass., where he held 
the office of demonstrator of anatomy during the winter ses- 
sion, and instructor in botany during the summer course. 
After receiving the degree of M. D. at this institution, in 
1825, he engaged for some time in practice with Drs. Tick- 
nor and Asahel Humphrey, of his native town. In 1827 he 



3 

removed to the city of New York, where he continued his 
studies, and engaged actively in practice. In this great and 
growing city he encountered all the difficulties that usually lie 
in the path of young men in their efforts to acquire profes- 
sional business and position. Being governed by correct 
morals, sound principles of action, with close attention to busi- 
ness, and indomitable perseverance, he was enabled in a short 
time to overcome all obstacles, and to take his place where his 
talents and education entitled him to be — in the front rank of 
the profession. 

As a necessity from the organization of his mind, lie was a 
profound thinker, and an enthusiastic, ceaseless worker, en- 
listing actively in any new measure of a public or professional 
character that promised in any way to be useful to the com- 
munity or to elevate the profession of medicine, and amelio- 
rate the condition of those requiring the aid of a physician. 

When the Northern Dispensary of New York City was 
being established, Dr. Lee and Dr. James Stewart were among 
its most active and most efficient promoters, and to them is 
largely due the successful founding of this one of the most 
useful of the many public charitable institutions of the city. 
He faithfully discharged the duties of attending physician to 
this dispensary for over four years, during which time he pre- 
scribed for and attended more than four thousand patients an- 
nually. On resigning this position he received from the board 
of directors a unanimous vote of thanks for his very acceptable 
services, and was chosen chief physician, with the privilege of 
making all the subordinate appointments, supplying medicines, 
and exercising a general supervision over the establishment, 
under the board of managers. In a few years the extension 
of his private practice, which began to engross most of his 
time, induced him to resign this responsible office, when he 
• was elected one of the consulting physicians, a position he 
held for many years. 

On the 28th of June, 1828, Dr. Lee was united in mar- 
riage with Hester Ann Mildeberge, daughter of John A. 
and Ann (De Witt) Mildeberge, of New York City, by whom 
he had nine children, only three of whom, all sons, survived. 

In 1S32, during the first visit of Asiatic cholera, Dr. 



Lee was appointed physician to Greenwich Cholera Hos- 
pital, and also attending-physician to the New York Orphan 
Asylum. In the latter institution he gave, in the form of 
lectures, specific instructions to the nurses on hygiene, ventila- 
tion, and the laws of health, and how to proceed in case any 
of the inmates were attacked ; and, although there had been 
two deaths in the house the day preceding his taking charge, 
there was not another fatal case among more than one hun- 
dred children subsequently seized with the disease. He was 
indefatigable in his attention to his hospital duties, abandon- 
ing for the most part his private practice, sleeping and eating 
in the hospital, that his services might be prompt and effi- 
cient. During the epidemic, the doctor attended upon and 
prescribed for nearly one thousand cases of cholera. 

From the time Dr. Lee commenced his professional career 
in the city of New York, up to 1845, he was most assiduously 
engaged in the practice of his profession, scarcely leaving the 
city for a single day. At this time, finding his health much 
impaired, and his nervous system particularly enfeebled from 
such close and laborious attention to his studies, and the 
routine duties of his profession, he accepted, by the advice of 
professional friends, an appointment to the chair of Materia 
Medica and General Pathology, in the Geneva Medical Col- 
lege, New York. The duties of this professorship required an 
absence of but eight weeks annually, which, however, gave 
him some relaxation, and proved beneficial to his health. 
The remainder of the year was devoted, as usual, to his 
practice in the city. 

The liberality and independence of the doctor's prin- 
ciples were signally illustrated in 1846, while Dean of the 
faculty, in procuring the admission of Miss Elizabeth Black- 
well as a regular student of medicine in the Geneva College. 
Her admission was after she had applied in vain to most of the 
medical schools in the principal cities, and when the doctor 
knew that his course would be likely to provoke criticism 
unfriendly to the Geneva College and himself. 

After the year 1850, Dr. Lee devoted himself chiefly 
to teaching various branches of medicine in different medical 
colleges, among which may be named the University of the 



City of New York ; Geneva Medical College ; University of 
Buffalo, medical department ; Vermont Medical College, at 
AYoodstock ; Maine Medical School, at Brunswick ; Berk- 
shire Medical College; Starling Medical College, Columbus, 
Ohio. The branches taught by him in these different col- 
leges were : Therapeutics and Materia Medica ; General 
Pathology, Obstetrics, and Diseases of Females ; Hygiene 
and Medical Jurisprudence. 

In addition to the chairs actually filled, Dr. Lee was in- 
vited to fill the chair of Theory and Practice of Medicine 
in the University of the City of Xew York at the time it was 
made vacant by the resignation of Meredith Clymer, M. D. 
The same chair was tendered him io the University of Louis- 
ville, Ivy., when it became vacant by the death of Daniel 
Drake, M. D. Existing professional engagements compelled 
him to decline both of these desirable positions. He also re- 
ceived applications to fill chairs in other colleges. 

In 1850, Dr. Lee, in connection with his colleagues, Drs. 
Hamilton, Flint, Hadley, and Webster, founded the Buffalo 
Medical School, acting under the charter of the L^niversity of 
Buffalo. He continued to deliver his annual course in this 
institute until 18 TO-' 71, when, at his own request, he was per- 
mitted to retire. The trustees at once elected him Emeritus 
Professor of Materia Medica and Hygieue, and at the same 
time passed unanimously a vote of thanks for his past valu- 
able services to the university. He retained this position to the 
time of his death. Dr. Lee gave an annual course of lectures 
in the Maine Medical School for about fourteen years, and 
in the Geneva College for ten years. He was generally recog- 
nized as one of our best American teachers, thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the latest and soundest views upon all medical 
subjects, and never failing to interest his class. He never at- 
tempted any rhetorical display, generally reading from his 
copious notes. 

After his college duties became so absorbing, he confined 
his practice chiefly to one of office consultations, and to consul- 
tations with other physicians. His consulting practice, too, 
was very large in the regions of the medical colleges in other 
States where he lectured, patients coming to him from long 



6 

distances. His experience and advice, too, were greatly sought 
after by medical practitioners. He was always a supporter of 
the ethics of the profession, and therefore popular with his 
brother practitioners, which did much to extend his consulta- 
tion business. 

Successful as Dr. Lee undoubtedly was as a teacher, it is 
by his pen that he has won his highest reputation. As an 
author and a medical writer, he is very widely and favorably 
known, both in this country and in Europe. He wrote exten- 
sively on a great variety of medical and scientific subjects. His 
" Physiology for the Use of Elementary Schools " was published 
by the American Common School Society about 1835. It was 
subsequently enlarged and published by J. Orville Taylor, of 
New York, and has passed through ten or more editions. This 
work- answered very well the purpose for which it was written, 
has had a large sale, and has done much to popularize this im- 
portant branch of knowledge with the people, and opened the 
way for its being taught in the common schools and seminaries 
of learning throughout our country. His " Manual of Geology, 
for Schools and Colleges," was published by the Harpers in 
1835, as one of the volumes of the " Family Library." This had 
a very extensive sale throughout the United States and the Can- 
ad as, and has done much to create a taste for the study of this 
useful science. In 1843, Dr. Lee was instrumental in estab- 
lishing the New York Journal of Medicine and the Collateral 
Sciences, a bi-monthly of one hundred and forty-four pages. 
Owing to the pressure of other engagements, the late Samuel 
Torry, M. D., author of a valuable work on the climate of 
the United States, was engaged to edit the first few volumes. 
On the death of Dr. Torry, Dr. Lee assumed the entire man- 
agement, his name appearing on the title-page of the fourth 
volume. He continued the journal to the close of the tenth 
volume, his own pen furnishing much of the original material. 
It is not saying too much to state that this journal took a high 
rank in periodical literature, and contributed greatly to the re- 
spectability of American medical journalism. 

In 1845, Dr. Lee brought out an edition of " Principles of 
Forensic Medicine," by William A. Guy, M. D., with exten- 
sive and valuable notes and additions, adding much to the 



value of the book. In this labor lie bad the cooperation and 
advice of the late Chancellor James Kent. 

In 1848, Dr. Lee commenced the most important and la- 
borious professional work of his life — the editing an American 
edition of Dr. James Copland's " Dictionary of Practical Medi- 
cine," issued irregularly in London, in numbers comprising 
1-44 pages of large octavo, double columns. Several attempts, 
one of which was in Washington, D. C, by Duff Green, had 
been made to issue an American reprint of this work, but, from 
one cause and another, all had failed. The editor, though ap- 
parently fully occupied with his medical journal, his practice, 
and his five or six annual courses of lectures in different col- 
leges, undertook the Herculean task of supplying, in the way 
of notes and additions, all of permanent value to be found in 
medical journals, monographs, formal treatises, and even man- 
uscript lectures, a task which involved the necessity of sup- 
plying himself with complete lists of the American medical 
periodicals, and the careful search of all known works of native 
origin relating to the different subjects discussed. The com- 
pleteness of the American Medical Bibliography, at the end 
of each article, shows the vast amount of careful and discrimi- 
nating labor and research expended in this department of the 
work. This was at the time the heaviest and most expensive 
medical publication ever undertaken in the United States, and 
will ever remain, with the extensive notes, a grand and lasting 
memorial of the indefatigable industry and research of the 
editor. It was the wonderful completeness and time-saving 
value of this list that first suggested to the author of this 
sketch the advantages to the medical man of a comprehen- 
sive subject-index to the medical literature of our various 
American medical journals, a work that is now well in hand. 
The Dictionary was fifteen years in passing through the press 
of the Harpers, owing to its slow publication by its author in 
London. The entire work forms three immense octavo vol- 
umes. It is not an exaggeration to say that this forms the 
most complete and valuable work on the theory and practice 
of medicine, including etiology, pathology, and therapeutics, 
ever issued from the English or the American press. Dr. 
Lee received the hearty thanks of Dr. Copland himself for 



\ 



8 



the able and satisfactory manner in which, he had given the 
American edition to the public. 

During the progress of this great work, Dr. Lee brought 
out other valuable publications, among which was an edition 
of a learned and practical treatise on " Food and Diet," by 
Jonathan Pereira, M. D. This enterprise was undertaken 
at the request of the distinguished author, from whom the 
American editor received kind acknowledgments and thanks. 
Besides the extensive notes, over seventy pages of original 
matter was added by way of appendix. As a matter of jus- 
tice, it should be stated that the entire profits of the numerous 
American editions of the work have been generously assigned 
by the editor to the author and his heirs. 

In 1840, Dr. Lee issued, with many valuable notes and an 
appendix of seventy pages of original matter, an American 
edition of an English work, entitled " Bacchus, an Essay on 
the Nature, Cause, Effects, and Cure of Intemperance," by 
Kalph B. Grindrod. The additions by the American editor 
were subsequently, in 1851, incorporated in the English edi- 
tion of the work. The American profits of this work were 
also relinquished by Dr. Lee to the British author. 

In 1843 he edited and published an edition of A. T. 
Thomson's " Conspectus " of the London, Edinburgh, and 
Dublin Colleges, and of the United States Pharmacopoeia. 
To this work he also added many valuable articles and 
extensive notes. 

In 1844, he supervised and revised an edition of the 
w Pharmaeologia, or, the Theory and Art of Prescribing," 
by J. A. Paris, M. D., which was published by the Harpers. 

About twenty-six or twenty-seven years ago, Dr. Lee 
wrote for the New York Churchman, at the request of 
the editor, a series of essays entitled " Medica Sacra," which 
were published in its weekly columns. They attracted much 
attention. 

Besides, the works already mentioned and printed, the 
doctor prepared, during the last years of his life, a work 
on the "Indigenous Materia Medica of the United States," 
which is in manuscript, and would form a volume of about 
six hundred pages, and would be a valuable contribution 



9 

to this department of medicine. In addition to those noticed, 
a number of other useful volumes were written or edited by 
the subject of this memoir. He was a constant and volu- 
minous contributor to various scientific, literary, and pro- 
fessional journals, at home and abroad, for more than forty 
years. His writings on hygiene, the laws of health, tem- 
perance, and the influence of alcohol — i. e., liquors — on the 
human body, were commenced in the year 1828, and con- 
tinued through various channels to the time of his death. 

Dr. Lee was one of the first to detect and call attention to 
the extensive and dangerous adulteration of malt-liquors in 
the United States, which, by careful analysis, he demonstrated, 
in 1834, from ten different samples of Albany ale. 

His wide-spread reputation as a forcible writer upon the 
subject of temperance induced the British Temperance Reform 
League to invite Dr. Lee, while in England, in 1862, to deliver 
an address before them at their annual meeting in Exeter Hall, 
London. His remarks on the occasion gave great satisfaction, 
and he received a unanimous vote of thanks. 

Dr. Lee first visited Europe in 1848, for the purpose 
of recruiting his health, which had become greatly im- 
paired by his close and severe labors. During this visit he 
became acquainted with many of the distinguished and lead- 
ing medical and scientific men of Great Britain and the Con- 
tinent. He visited all the most noted hospitals and public 
institutions. He took a special interest in studying the 
management of institutions for the insane, and wrote a 
series of papers on this subject, of decided ability, which 
did much to inform the profession of our country of the 
improvements introduced into hospitals for the insane. An 
absence of nine months, with the agreeable society he met,, 
and the tonic of travel, entirely restored him to health, 
and on his return he at once renewed the routine of his 
usual duties as teacher, editor, author, and practitioner. 

The character of Dr. Lee's mind, and the range of studies 
that engaged his attention, entitle him to be ranked with a 
class of medical men, never numerous in any country^ such as 
Rush, Mitchell, Hosack, Francis, Drake, etc. His^ thoughts 
took a philosophic range of great scope, manifesting some 



10 



preference for the natural and exact sciences. This quality of 
his mind, with his thorough and comprehensive studies, led 
him to be selected and esteemed as one of the most important 
medical experts in our country. He was a man of genial dis- 
position, elegant manners, and was affable and courteous to 
all. He was thoroughly unselfish, and ready at all times to 
help others ; and was particularly the friend and supporter of 
young men entering the profession. His sympathies were 
active and humanitarian in their turn, and often brought him 
before the public. 

In the spring of 1862, the second year of the war, Dr. Lee 
visited Europe to collect plans, models, and specifications of the 
best and most recent naval, civil, and military hospitals of Great 
Britain and the Continent, for the use of the United States 
Government. In the prosecution of this philanthropic enter- 
prise he was eminently successful. The heads of the "War and 
Navy Departments of Great Britain, with much consideration 
and promptitude, placed at his disposal accurate maps and 
drawings, with working plans and specifications of the most 
approved naval and military hospitals of the kingdom. These, 
with others, were placed in the archives of the War Depart- 
ment at Washington, and served, no doubt, as valuable models 
for the erection of similar establishments during the progress 
of the war. During the same year, while on an extended 
tour through England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Prus- 
sia, Austria, and Italy, he wrote for the American Medical 
Times, of New York, about fifty elaborate and carefully-pre- 
pared letters, designed to furnish useful and important facts 
and information to our army and naval surgeons, as well as 
to practitioners generally, in regard to military and naval 
hygiene hospitals, and hospital hygiene, bringing prominently 
forward the medical and surgical treatment of patients in the 
various public charitable institutions of the different countries, 
and their special arrangements and management. Before 
leaving England on this tour, Dr. Lee was elected a member 
of the "British Social Science Congress," then holding its 
annual session in London, with Lord Brougham as its presi- 
dent. The doctor was unanimously called to preside over the 
scct:3n of the health department of that useful association. 



11 

In consequence of the protracted and severe military 
struggle in which his native country was then unhappily in- 
volved, Dr. Lee was induced, late in the fall of 1862, while at 
Naples, on his way to Egypt and the East, to turn his steps 
homeward. He reached New York early in 1863, and imme- 
diately offered his services to the Government, in the capacity 
of a surgeon. He was accepted and assigned to duty in a hos- 
pital, but, very properly believing that he could be more useful 
in a wider field than he enjoyed in the subordinate position 
which had been allotted him, he soon resigned, and accepted 
a situation as hospital inspector and visitor, in the United 
States Sanitary Commission's employ. He labored efficiently 
in this field until the close of the war. 

In the spring of 1865, soon after the surrender of General 
Lee's army, the doctor was engaged for several months 
throughout the South in collecting materials for u Memoirs of 
a Sanitary History of the War," particularly as relating to the 
Confederate armies, with hospital statistics, army diseases, 
etc., in which he was remarkably successful. A portion of 
these valuable papers will be found in the " Sanitary Records 
and Medical History of the War," issued by the United States 
Sanitary Commission. 

In 1850 Dr. Lee purchased a handsome residence in the 
neighborhood of the Highlands near Peekskill, on the Hudson. 
He loved domestic retirement and quiet study : and there, with 
his library and his family around him, he passed much of his 
time in study and writing, and in the enjoyment of quietude 
during the closing years of his life. 

For the last ten years he has taken a very active interest 
in some of the great humanitarian movements, especially in 
instituting and encouraging reform in the management and 
care of the chronic insane of the United States. As a large 
majority of this unfortunate class are quiet and harmless, and 
able to perform considerable bodily labor, he was opposed to 
shutting them up in close and crowded wards and cells, but 
favored their distribution under the care of suitable attendants 
and keepers, in simple, cheap, and comfortable cottages, after 
the French system, where they may enjoy open-air life, and a 
degree of domestic comfort, with sufficient daily exercise to 



12 

preserve health. These views he has advocated at consider- 
able length in the form of two able reports, one made to the 
New York State Medical Society, and published in their 
Transactions for the year 1865 ; the other as chairman of a 
committee appointed by the American Medical Association, 
and contained in their Transactions for 1868. 

Dr. Lee was a member of the New York Academy of 
Medicine, the New York State Medical Society, the American 
Medical Association, the New York Historical Society, the 
New York Lyceum of Natural History, etc., and honorary 
member of the Connecticut State Medical Society, the Ohio 
State Medical Society, and a long list of other learned and 
scientific bodies, both at home and abroad. 

In 1835, he became a member of the Episcopal Church, 
with which he retained a consistent Christian connection to 
the time of his death. He was warden of St. Peter's Church 
at Peekskill for many years, always taking an active interest 
in its affairs. For a layman he was remarkably well versed 
in theology, and liberal in his views of religion. Dr. Martyn 
Payne writes :i "I had enjoyed an intimate acquaintance 
with Dr. Lee fir more than forty years, and had the highest 
esteem for him as a man of the most lofty virtues, and pro- 
found religious convictions. His writings attest the compre- 
hensive nature of his scientific and literary acquirements, as 
well as a vigorous and logical mind." 

Dr. Lee was taken ill on the 30th of January, with endo- 
carditis, and after two weeks of suffering died, with calmness 
and Christian hope. His wife and three sons survive him, and 
were with him during his sickness. His remains have been 
interred in "Sleepy Hollow Cemetery," at Tarrytown, N. Y. 
—J. M. Toner, M. D. 





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